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Sacred Bleeding Host of Dijon
Machéco Master (Oudot Matuchet?) French
Not on view
In Dijon, the sudden bleeding of a communion host, according to medieval tradition, was the result of its stabbing by a Jew, inciting a cult that lasted more than 350 years. Such hosts were believed to confirm the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The resemblance of Christ’s pose in bleeding host images and Van Eyck’s Last Judgment may indicate the reference of the latter to the former, thus supporting the theory that the Crucifixion and Last Judgment may have served as the doors of a tabernacle that held the Dijon Host, a gift from Pope Eugenius IV to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1433.
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